A Democratic lawmaker plans to force a symbolic vote on impeaching Donald Trump in response to the President’s controversial critique of American football protests.
While Democrats have repeatedly called for Mr Trump’s impeachment or removal, spurred on most recently by his equivocal response to a car mowing down protesters in Charlottesville - with some even suggesting Mr Trump is mentally unfit to do the job - the latest effort is all but certain to fail in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Prefacing his plans to push for a vote, Representative Al Green of Texas denounced Mr Trump’s urging NFL owners to punish players who kneel for the national anthem in protest, saying they should “Get that son of a bitch off the field”. The President has doubled down on the remark, calling for boycotts of the NFL and revisiting the issue in dozens of tweets.
“I rise to defend any mother who has been called a dog because her son engaged in peaceful protest,” Mr Green said, slamming Mr Trump for having “brought discourse to a new low”.
“This is a level of decency that is unbecoming the presidency,” Mr Green said, vowing that next week, “I will stand here in the well of the Congress and I will call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America”.
Since they wield a majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans control the levers of legislative machinery and can generally block bills from getting floor votes.
Mr Green can make a procedural move that would compel members to vote on whether to open debate on his impeachment resolution, which would all but certainly result in Republicans voting to halt the measure.
